Clayton, Missouri - February 24, 2022 - While I wouldn't describe myself as the foremost expert on selling stories, I have helped a brand make millions off their story. My path through the St. Louis Cardinals organization helped shape my thinking in profound ways.

Major League Baseball teams are infinitely creative when it comes to thinking of new ways to make money. The St. Louis Cardinals are among the industry leaders. When I look back on my time with team filtering things through the lens of the founder of an innovative startup company on a mission to bring storytelling to all, I can't help but see the creative ways you can monetize a story.

The most fun I had while working with the Cardinals was when I worked on what I called the "memorabilia project". Since we had to privately finance the new ballpark, we were absolutely shameless in finding ways to monetize the end of an era with what we called "Busch II." For the record Busch II wasn't George W. Bush. It was the second Busch Stadium. Few fans realized that Busch Stadium wasn't the second Busch as they fondly remembered the prior stadium as Sportsman's Park.

I had a blast working with my colleagues Vicki Bryant, Missy Tobey (now Liotta) and Mark Lamping on coming up with all kinds of creative ways to monetize the end of that era. We sold seats, seat backs, section signs, bases, dirt and even a urinal (made the top 10 weirdest sports stories of the year on ESPN). Some would say we were shameless. For the record, I loved it. Have William H. Macy play me in the movie version.

What I learned then - and know now at a DNA level is we where really selling story. We were monetizing the collective story of the team. I say collective because it is shared with the fans. Nothing could encapsulate the symbiotic relationship between a team and fans than how fans brought sharpies to the ballpark to sign their name on virtually everything.

I'll never forget how we had to find a product to remove sharpie off seats. We bought a bunch of spray cans from Granger and were shipping it to fans who were calling Missy and me to vent about how their seats had graffiti on them. Anyway, I don't want to digress too much into my memories about that special time other than to say the memorabilia gets its value from the word "memory". Which I would say is "story".

Someone paid $1 million to buy the baseball Mark McGwire hit as home run number 70 in 1998 because of the story. At that moment in time, the investor thought a Rawlings baseball that likely retailed for $25 was worth a million dollars because of the story.

Stories can be sold. When we did a high-end auction that last season in the old stadium, we spent a lot of time writing detailed descriptions about items for sale to sell the story behind the item. Collectors are buying the story in addition to the ephemera.

Collectibles are just one example of selling a story. That is why StorySMART is developing a NFT (non-fungible token) approach to our digital video work for celebrities, athletes and others. It is just one way someone can monetize their story. Selling their documentary to Netflix is another.

How can a story be monetized? It is almost limitless. Just ask Walt Disney, George Lucas or J.K. Rowling. Stories have probably been sold since cave people started putting them on the cave wall. Maybe before.

The ability to monetize your story is only limited by how well it is told, your imagination and market economics. StorySMART exists to help you tell it in an amazing way and to help you make the most of it (including monetizing). While developing monetization approaches for clients may help fuel the growth of StorySMART, that isn't why I am so passionate about what we are doing to help clients.

The real value in a story isn't pecuniary. It is about connecting with an audience. Stories build and deepen relationships. They can ratify that sense of belonging.

That said, some stories can be sold. For a lot of money. I just finished watching "Inventing Anna" on Netflix. It is based on a true story of a woman who ran up more than $200,000 in unpaid bills and is facing deportation. Netflix paid her $320,000 for the rights to her story. One of the people that claims she (Rachel) was victimized by Anna sold her story for $600,000.

Anyway, you get the idea. A good story can be sold if it is told well and there is a market.

StorySMART's mission is to help clients make the most of their story while also ensuring they retain the IP (intellectual property) rights so they can do whatever you want with it. Give away. Sell it. Lock it away in a time capsule to be shared a hundred years after they die. You name it.

Savvy brands are figuring out that owning the rights to their story and taking control of their narrative is mission critical. That is why we have developed premium services for businesses, non-profits, celebrities, athletes, families and individuals.

I'm really excited about the various ways we will be helping clients monetize their story.

We will be helping clients develop their story in to full length feature documentaries that we expect to sell to streaming services. We also expect to be helping some of clients create limited edition NFT (non-fungible token) collectibles and take full advantage of augmented and virtual reality storytelling.